The Falcon Ridge Series Book 2 Not Just A Girl

(Chapter song ‘Look What You Made Me Do' by Taylor Swift)

SARAH

I did it. I don't know how, but I did. I made the grumpy Alpha smile. Not only that, I made him actually have fun with me.

It was nice sharing that part of myself with him. I don't even share it with Ash. It's a coping mechanism my mom developed to try and stop me from causing havoc. Every day, before school, she'd turn on music and the two of us would crazily dance until we had to leave.

Sharing it with Jayson felt almost natural. Like he's supposed to know my secrets. Dancing with him made me feel relaxed. We just met, yet I feel like I've known him for years. Like we could actually be friends.

I've been wanting to thank him for the great time I had, but it's Thursday and I haven't seen Jayson since Saturday morning.

Cass has been training us all week. I asked Cass where he was and he said Jayson had to head home for pack business for a few days. He's supposed to be back today. So, I'll probably pop into his office after practice to say hi.

Cass isn't bad. Pretty fair. Definitely likes to make us sweat.

"Come on guys! Pick it up!" He yells as we run a small obstacle of hurdles, tires and rope nets.

I get over the ten hurdles ok, but then take a full-on header off one of the tires. It's the third time I've fallen on this damn course.

"Sarah! Get it together!" Cass yells.

I shoot him narrow eyes and go back in line.

The bigger guys fly through the course, but a lot of us land on our faces.

Georgia trips off hurdle number four, taking out five and six on her way, skidding up the course. "Argh!" She yells as she sits up holding her arm.

Cass and Kale run and kneel beside her. Kale lifts her arm and Georgia screams. He looks up at Cass. "It's dislocated."

Cass leans to Georgia. "Sweetie. I want you to hang onto Kale real tight now. Don't look. Ok?"

She nods as tears run down her face. Kale hangs onto her, holding her head into his chest and away from her shoulder. He looks at Cass and nods with a solemn look on his face.

Cass takes a deep breath. He holds her arm in one hand and her shoulder in the other. "On three, ok? One... Two..." He held her arm and popped her shoulder back into place. “Three!" He grits as Georgia screams into Kale's chest. He holds her as she bursts into tears.

"Shh... The pain will go away. It'll go away. Hang on. Just a minute." He rocks her while waiting for the pain to fade.

Kale lets her go, wipes her tears, holds her cheeks and looks into her eyes. "The pain going away?"

She nods and he smiles sweetly. “Good.” He stands her up. "Ok. Why don't you go and sit for a bit?" Her cheeks flush and she gives a little smile back.

Oh. What’s this I see. I smirk to myself.

As Georgia leaves, Kale turns back. "Alright guys, let's get back to work!" He claps his hands and jogs off the course. Cass sets the hurdles back up.

I step out of line, jog to Georgia and squat in front of her. She has faint tears, but seems to be better.

"You, ok?" I ask.

"Yeah. I'll be alright. It was really nice of Kale to do that." She smiles.

I look back at Kale and turn to her. "He's a really nice guy. Funny, too. You should talk to him more." I motion my head to him.

"You think?" Her eyes lit up.

"Totally." I grin.

"Sarah!" I look back and Kale's pointing to the line. He looks at Georgia and smiles. He gives a thumbs up asking if she's OK and Georgia returns it.

I quickly turn to her. "Definitely talk to him more. Ok. I got to go."

She gives a little wave. "Bye. I shouldn't sit out long."

I jog back to the line. I’m actually feeling kind of good that I may have played a little match maker here.

I was about to go on my run, when I see Jayson walking up past the dorms, heading for the Alpha building. He doesn't look this way, but at least I know he's here now and I can thank him for a fun morning. I'm kind of excited to see him after not seeing him for so long.

After lunch, it was pack run drills. Two lines of us jogging around the field. When Cass yells Alpha, the runner at the back has to sprint to the front of the pack and take the lead.

Kale was running along beside us, "Pick up those feet! Get this pack moving!" He yells.

Cass, running backwards, yells, "Alpha!" And I sprint fast to the front. "Come on, Sarah. Faster!" He claps his hands.

After about an hour, we're done. People started tripping over themselves and messing up the line.

Kale laughs as half his line goes down like a set of dominoes. "Ok, stop guys!"

We all tumble to the ground, sprawl out and breath like we’re suffocating.

Cass walks around our dying bodies. "That was good, but you can do so much better." He steps over me and continues, side eyeing me as he goes by. "I want more stamina from you next time. You got me?"

A weak "Yes, Alpha." comes from the bodies littering the practice field.

Kale claps his hands. "Ok. Hit the showers and go get dinner."

Like a pack of wolf zombies, we all head for the locker room.

Once I'm showered, changed and had dinner, I head to Jayson's office.

I run through everything I'm going to say. I smile at the thought that he might be happy to see me after so long.

I turn down the hall Jayson's office is in, with a little bounce in my step, but something slows my pace.

A sound. I slowly walk to Jayson's office door. It's open a few inches, like someone didn't close it properly.

I grow confused as I hear grunting and growls. Hesitantly, place my hand on the door and push it open.

My jaw goes slack and my eyes go wide. My cheeks flush about ten shades of red.

Jayson has Wren, naked on his desk. His jeans around his knees.

I’m filled with embarrassment as I watch them right in the middle of having sex. My breathing speeds up. My heart races. I'm frozen. My eyes lock on his bare back.

Wren opens her eyes and quickly slaps his back. "Jay." She pants as she stops him.

"What?" He huffs and follows the direction of her eyes.

As our eyes lock, I unfreeze and start to look for escape. "Oh... Um... Shoot... I'm... uh... I'm so sorry." I quickly shut the door and run down the hall.

When I'm around the corner, I slam my back against the wall. I lean my head back, trying to process what I just saw.

I mean, I can't get mad. I can't get jealous. I can't get anything. So, why do I feel weird all of a sudden. My wolf is whining as I try to catch my breath.

I hear a door open. I don't want to get caught again, so I run for the dorms.

Once safe inside my room, I slide down the door and sit on the floor.

I'm not sad, or angry. I'm confused. I thought me and Jayson had some sort of connection. Clearly, it was my imagination or maybe some stupid, teenage crush.

One thing's for sure, he's not interested in me. He's mostly likely just pretending to be nice to me because he figures I'll listen better than with him angry at me all the time.

Well, that's not happening.

Now, that I know he's just pretending to be nice, the gloves are off.

I'll make him wish I never stepped foot in this place.

****

I didn't look his way once during practice on Friday. I stayed in Friday night when everyone headed to Feral. Ash tried to get me to go, but I told her I had the stomach flu which is lame since we never get sick, but she left it alone.

Saturday morning, I didn't do my usual run in the woods to dance to music. I wasn't in a dancing mood. I needed to let out some aggression.

I have the perfect place. The sports complex building.

Like I said earlier, I'm really good at picking locks, so I let myself in and headed for the sports equipment locker. I grabbed a baseball bat and swung it around. I can already feel my irritation travel from my body into the handle. There was also a bag of tennis balls in there and I grabbed those, too.

I climbed the service stairs to the roof of the arena.

Walking out to the edge, I lean over it. It overlooks the whole practice field. The recruit dorms are one the other side and look like a great target from here.

I dump the balls all over the roof, pick one up and give it a squeeze. Tossing it in the air, I keep my eye on it and swing the bat as hard as I can. The bats head connects and the ball is smashed into the practice field, bouncing across the grass and almost hitting the dorms.

I grab another one, bounce it, catch it, throw it up and hit it with a growl. It flies through the air and hits the second story wall of Dorm number 2.

I do this a dozen more times, but I'm still feeling agitated. I have about fifty more balls to get this out of my system and I plan on using every single one of them.

I hit ball after ball. Littering the walkway of the dorms and the edge of the field with them.

I'm in a zone and not paying attention at all.

I didn't see Luke, Jayson, Cass and Kale come out of the dorm and start up the walk.

I didn't see Luke pick up a ball and turn to Jayson. I certainly didn't see where I was aiming my next ball because it went flying at full speed and connected with Luke's stomach, dropping him to his knee.

"Fuck!" He yells.

Cass and Kale can hardly hold themselves together. Their laughter drags me out of my tunnel vision and the full scope of the situation comes to light.

I watch Jayson look toward the arena and my eyes narrow.

I grab another ball, throw it up without hesitation and hit it when it comes down. I watch the Alphas duck as it bounces off the wall just above his head.

I hit another. This one bounces on the grass just short of his sneakers.

"Dude! It's a fucking baseball sniper!" Kale grabs Cass and ducks out the way.

Jayson walks to the edge of the grass, puts his hands on his hips and our eyes lock. My mouth shrinks, my eyes squint and my agitation rises. I bounce another ball a few times and, as if time slowed down, I toss the ball, watch it fall and hit it with everything I have.

It screams through the air, targeting Jayson. My heart pounds and his sounds of sex play in my ears as I watch the ball about to hit him in the chest.

At the last second, he reaches his hand out and stops the ball in its tracks.

Kale jumps up. "Whoa, dude! I can't believe you caught that!"

I walk to the edge, put the tip of the bat on the roof and lean on it.

Jayson holds the ball in front of his face in his fingertips, then raises his eyes to me. His face twists into anger. "Sarah! My office! Right now!" His voice echoes through the complex.

I drop the bat and head down to the ground level.

I don't know why I was so agitated. I said I wasn't mad, but when I saw him, all I wanted to do was pummel him with tennis balls.

Stepping out of the arena, I cross my arms and don’t hide my feelings.

Jayson stomps up to me and I meet him in the middle of the field. Both of us are full of anger on our faces. He grabs my arm. "Let's go."

Luke is rubbing his stomach as Jayson drags me past him. He points to my face. "You better hope I don't get you on the field." He growls.

When we get to his office, he practically throws me in and shuts the door. He pulls out a chair and slams it in the middle of the floor.

"Sit." He barks.

I sit and cross my legs and arms. He leans on his desk in front of me. Instantly, the image of him and Wren flood my brain and I look away, ticking my jaw.

He crosses his thick arms. His large chest muscle press against his shirt. "What the hell was that?"

I don't say a word.

"Sarah!" He yells, making me flinch.

I turn my head to him and shrug. "Just relieving some stress." I mumble.

"Relieving stress. By endangering the members of this camp? Are you serious?" He glares at me.

"Please. They were tennis balls, not bullets." I narrow my eyes at him.

He steps forward. "It's doesn't matter, Sarah. That was reckless behavior and you assaulted someone."

"Who, Luke? I never assaulted him. It was an accident." I scoff as I wave him off. "I wasn't meaning to hit him."

He gets really close and leans to me. His scent is suffocating. "Oh? What about the ones at me? Was that an accident?"

I look him dead in the eye and throw out some good old attitude. "No. I was aiming for you."

His jaw ticks as he studies my face. He pulls in his top lip, nods slowly and walks back to his desk.

He turns around and leans on the edge. "This is about the other day, isn't it?"

"No." I say quietly. It's a total lie, but I wasn't giving him the satisfaction of knowing he hurt me.

"You know that's none of your business, right?" He crossed his arms again.

"Yeah." I play with my t shirt.

"But it bugged you, didn't it?" His eyes bore holes into me.

"No. I don't care." I mumble so quiet, it's almost inaudible.

"Really. Well, I have a practice field covered with tennis balls that says different." He continues to stare as he points to the field.

I don't bother responding. He can say all he wants, but I'm not admitting that seeing him with Wren upset me enough to do this.

"Fine. First, you'll clean up your mess and put everything back. Second, you'll clean every inch of the complex after you leave this office. You'll have one hour of extra circuit laps after practice for the next week and you'll apologize to Luke. Do I make myself clear?"

I just stare at my shirt.

"Sarah!" He yells.

"Yes, sir." I mumble.

"Ok. Go wait outside. You'll report to Cass."

I give him a nasty look before getting up and walking into the hallway to wait for Cass.

I'll take the punishment. It's better than admitting to Jayson and myself that he broke something in me. Something that I thought was special. He hurt me and I won't let him enjoy it.